Fury is the story of World War II writ small. It is told, in large part, from the inside of a tank--and curiously only when the story strays from the tank does it lag or lose its focus.

Perhaps the characters are not all that well developed but the actors fill the gaps in the script with, well, acting. This is a well cast movie with everyone taking on the mantle of a tried and true World War II archetype. We know the religious guy, the redneck and the "fish out of water" clerk who winds up assigned to a tank.

We also know Brad Pitt's macho, blustery Sgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier. He walks away with a swagger and stops, shaking with his hands clasped to his head when no one can see. He, and all the other actors in the tank crew; show their own sorts of "tics" through the film. And this rings true with the recent book, Guns of Last Light by Rick Atkinson. By this point in the war pretty much every fighting man in Europe was at the edge of their mental endurance. How they all didn't crack is some sort of miracle. The film rejects the "Greatest Generation" hokum of news anchors trying to sell books; the real men were just that, real men, not supermen. It makes what they did more impressive, not less.

The film also agrees with Atkinson's book in another way Americans don't always like to see; taking prisoners, especially SS prisoners, was not a high priority. Atkinson's book has it that there were oral orders to basically shoot SS prisoners. And, especially after the Battle of the Bulge, there is lots of evidence that a "Death's Head" emblem would get you a bullet to the head if captured.

And who could blame them, especially after years of becoming inured to gruesome death being all around you? Add to this the expectation that your own death was around every corner. Imagine at the end of the war, when you know the Nazis are beaten, the anxiety over being killed when victory was just a matter of time?

Fury might not be a great movie but it is at the very least, quite a good one. It may be a movie that requires a few viewings to properly assess it. It is competent and well paced showing the roughness, the anger and the violence of war. It rarely gets sentimental and the action scenes are both gruesome and gripping.

Whiplash is, ostensibly, the story of a young student at a prestigious music school. There, he runs into a driven but also hostile, manipulative and pretty close to crazy professor. I write "ostensibly" because the film has a subtext that can be extended to all obsession, to the general human condition of those who become obsessed with something.

But on the screen we see a young man who wants to please and the older man pushes and tortures his students. Both of them are selfish, both of them are not really people you would want to spend quality time with.

The film is tense and gripping as you wait for a new outburst.

The performances in the film are all good but the smaller of thse are overshadowed by the two obsessed leads. J.K Simmons , as the teacher, makes Buddy Rich look like Mr. Rogers and Miles Teller, as the student makes Dustin Hoffman in Rainman seem well balanced. The interaction of these two is worth the price of admission. You will recognize Simmons from his insurance commercials (hey, everyone needs to make a living) but he could wind up with an Oscar nomination depending on whether anyone SEES this movie.

The film does perpetuate the notion that you need to be a ranting lunatic to be an real artist. They repeat the story of a cymbal being thrown at Charlie Parker and there are constant images and references to Rich (almost as famous these days for the recordings of him ranting at his band as his drumming). But while you cannot BLAME the film for this notion it is worth pointing out that there are no stories about Count Basie throwing things at his band. Most jazz band leaders don't act like idiots if you play poorly; they just fire you. And for a musician losing a job is a bigger problem than someone yelling at you.

This movie is, of course, telling a specific fictional story.

The film will not make you like jazz if you don't already but if you HATE jazz do not let that scare you away from the movie. I am no aficionado of the genre, in fact, I sort of hate most jazz. Part of the reason is how deadly serious some people take it; just like the people in this movie. They take music and make it a chore. They turn what should be joy into a math problem.

But this is perfect grist for a movie. These obsessed, mad, characters keep you watching and wondering how it is all going to turn out.

There are moments when the film almost turns into a male, jazz Black Swan but it never gets weird or over the top enough to be that--which is probably a good thing. But it does sort of wilt a little at the end, not enough to ruin the effort but enough to leave you wishing for an alternate ending.

Without giving too much away the love of music overcomes hostility, hard feelings and betrayal. It is sort of hard to come up with examples where this happens in real life? But this is, after all, a movie.